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Goodbye BlackBerry, Welcome Android

Not long ago, whenever I meet somebody, I was asked for my BlackBerry (BB) pin. These days I rarely got this question. Mobile phone number was asked instead.

Facebook notifications also mentioned that many of my friends are starting to use Facebook for Android application. It means that they are switching from BB to Android-based phone. Recent status from a friend also showed this trend.

What does all of this mean? It means that Android is replacing BlackBerry in Indonesia. We used to be a big market for BB, but now it is declining.

Long time ago I urged BB to open a research center in Indonesia. To investigate our behavior, why we loved BB. You cannot do this from remote. It has to be here, in Indonesia.

BB was nice at one point. Its price packaging was great at that time. You can send as many messages as you like with BBM. At that time we have to pay for SMS. Very small amount of money, but still in our mind we have to pay while BBM is "free". We forgot that there is a monthly subscription. Or our monthly subscription is less than what we pay for all SMS we sent. We loved and still love doing texting / SMS here. SMS is now "free" for all operators.

Then there was group messaging. Well, there's what's up for that.

Facebook was a great thing. Facebook was the killer application for mobile computing in Indonesia. Remember, we love to chat. And ... we love takin photos, tagging our friends, and doing reunions (with past classmates). That's who we are! And all of these were catered by Facebook and are still monopolized by Facebook. (Google plus is not happening yet. That's why I urged Google to open a research center in Indonesia, but Google just wouldn't listend. Look what happened to RIM.)

BB was the best platform for accessing Facebook. Device-wise it was the best. Nowadays there are better devices for that. Tablet anybody? Samsung anybody? Price-wise BB was also the best. It was "free". Nowadays, many operator provide free / cheap facebook access from any phones! No need to use BB.

With all that, BB's popularity is diminishing. The reason people are sticking with BB is that they already have contacts in their BB. It's a pain to migrate to other platform. When their BBs are dead /broken and their contacts cannot be saved, then they have a reason to migrate. It's goodbye BB. Welcome Android.